I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers. Who does Miami have on their team other than Giancarlo Stanton? I don't think I can name even one other player. Now that the Astros are in the AL, the Marlins have a solid chance of locking up last place in the NL this year.

GiantRex:I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers. Who does Miami have on their team other than Giancarlo Stanton? I don't think I can name even one other player. Now that the Astros are in the AL, the Marlins have a solid chance of locking up last place in the NL this year.

Lots of teams play bad teams to open their seasons. And yet only thirteen times in 113 years have those good teams playing bad teams shut them out in 18 consecutive season-opening innings.

kronicfeld:GiantRex: I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers. Who does Miami have on their team other than Giancarlo Stanton? I don't think I can name even one other player. Now that the Astros are in the AL, the Marlins have a solid chance of locking up last place in the NL this year.

Lots of teams play bad teams to open their seasons. And yet only thirteen times in 113 years have those good teams playing bad teams shut them out in 18 consecutive season-opening innings.

Yeah, plus didn't the headline pretty much state that basic premise (Marlins = Crap = Less Impressive) as the punchline?

MugzyBrown:kronicfeld: Lots of teams play bad teams to open their seasons. And yet only thirteen times in 113 years have those good teams playing bad teams shut them out in 18 consecutive season-opening innings.

So it happens every 8-9 seasons?

Not so impressive.

Yeah, just like perfect games which happen every 5-6 years, nobody thinks those are impressive either.

GiantRex:I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers. Who does Miami have on their team other than Giancarlo Stanton? I don't think I can name even one other player. Now that the Astros are in the AL, the Marlins have a solid chance of locking up last place in the NL this year.

They're batting Placido Polanco in the cleanup spot. He slugged .327 last year.

Their fourth-highest-paid player is Greg Dobbs, a 34-year-old corner infielder with a lifetime .308 OBP. They use him as a pinch hitter.

Their sixth-highest-paid player is backup catcher Jeff Mathis, who is injured, which should prevent him from repeating his 2011 performance where he slugged .259. (The injury is believed to be due to shame.)

Their #2 starter is Kevin Slowey, who last pitched in the majors in 2011, when he posted a 6.67 ERA for the Twins. He then got sent to AAA when he couldn't make the Cleveland roster, and got hurt for all of 2012.

They are likely to be a historically bad baseball team, as are the Astros. Bad enough to be interesting to watch, because you might not see this level of bad again for a while.

GiantRex:I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers.

Does it really matter who the shutouts are against. Even good hitting teams can be shut out two days in a row. trying to make any kind of conclusion based on such an irrelevant fact in regards to baseball is silly either way. A terrible team could post back to back shutouts during a season. What is the difference if it is games one and two or 134 and 135?

srhp29:GiantRex: I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers.

Does it really matter who the shutouts are against. Even good hitting teams can be shut out two days in a row. trying to make any kind of conclusion based on such an irrelevant fact in regards to baseball is silly either way. A terrible team could post back to back shutouts during a season. What is the difference if it is games one and two or 134 and 135?

my_cats_breath_smells_like_cat_food:MugzyBrown: kronicfeld: Lots of teams play bad teams to open their seasons. And yet only thirteen times in 113 years have those good teams playing bad teams shut them out in 18 consecutive season-opening innings.

So it happens every 8-9 seasons?

Not so impressive.

Yeah, just like perfect games which happen every 5-6 years, nobody thinks those are impressive either.

You can't really compare those two. There are a lot more games where there aren't perfect games pitched compared to the amount of games eligible for 2 shutouts for the first 2 games of a season.

This is a classic manufactured stat. Take something like back-to-back shutouts, a modest accomplishment, but combine it with an arbitrary thing like "to start the season" or odd numbered days, or Sundays, or whatever. Baseball commentary does this because in 162 games, you can't have a Deion Sanders type analyst saying "Do what you DO!!!" for 161 more games. They have to come up with something to fill in the time between "This pitching change brought to you by Penzoil."

ko_kyi:This is a classic manufactured stat. Take something like back-to-back shutouts, a modest accomplishment, but combine it with an arbitrary thing like "to start the season" or odd numbered days, or Sundays, or whatever. Baseball commentary does this because in 162 games, you can't have a Deion Sanders type analyst saying "Do what you DO!!!" for 161 more games. They have to come up with something to fill in the time between "This pitching change brought to you by Penzoil."

kronicfeld:GiantRex: I love the Nats and I want to see them do well, but it's not like they posted these shutouts against the Giants or the Dodgers. Who does Miami have on their team other than Giancarlo Stanton? I don't think I can name even one other player. Now that the Astros are in the AL, the Marlins have a solid chance of locking up last place in the NL this year.

Lots of teams play bad teams to open their seasons. And yet only thirteen times in 113 years have those good teams playing bad teams shut them out in 18 consecutive season-opening innings.

This marlin team is probably the worst MLB team in the past 113 years so its still less than impressive, let's see how they do when the reworked bullpen has to pitch.

steamingpile:This marlin team is probably the worst MLB team in the past 113 years so its still less than impressive, let's see how they do when the reworked bullpen has to pitch.

The reworked bullpen that has thrown 5 IP, given up 2 singles and 2 walks while striking out 6 and not allowing any runs?

The bullpen that was above-average for the NL last year, then kept everyone under age 30 and added Rafael Soriano? I mean, they "reworked" so much that they no longer have Brad Lidge or a 35-year-old Mike Gonzalez, so they'll have to figure out how to get by without that.

Steamingpile: Your Fark source for Steaming PilesTM. You did a nice job last spring of telling everyone how horrible the Nationals would be.

srhp29:steamingpile: This marlin team is probably the worst MLB team in the past 113 years so its still less than impressive, let's see how they do when the reworked bullpen has to pitch.

Wait. The Marlins are worse than the Astros? Damn.

No, not really. The Marlins are paying $50M for their "talent". While low, the Astros are paying nearly half that at $26M. They have only 9 players that aren't eligible to make league minimum. Two of their top 5 paid players are relievers. Their top-paid player is Wandy Rodriguez, who was traded to the Pirates. The $5M they pay him will be $2M more than they pay their next-highest paid player, "ace" Bud Norris.

Their #3 hitter and 2nd-highest paid player on the roster is Carlos Pena, who had an OPS of .684 with the Rays last year.

Two of the 9 players making more than minimum are Rick Ankiel and Ronny Cedeno. Ankiel had a .282 OBP last year for the Nationals before being released for being awful. Cedeno had a career year hitting-wise as a backup on the awful Mets, OPSing .741. Most people expect him, at age 30, to be closer to his career norm of .647 with more playing time this year.

One of those 9 players is former Mexican leaguer Edgar Gonzalez. His career FIP is 5.26, ERA being 5.84. He may end up starting at some point. In the rotation are Phillip Humber (worst pitcher to ever throw a perfect game?) and Erik Bedard, who were both released by their teams mid-season last year (the White Sox and Pirates, respectively),

lacydog:No, not really. The Marlins are paying $50M for their "talent". While low, the Astros are paying nearly half that at $26M. They have only 9 players that aren't eligible to make league minimum. Two of their top 5 paid players are relievers. Their top-paid player is Wandy Rodriguez, who was traded to the Pirates. The $5M they pay him will be $2M more than they pay their next-highest paid player, "ace" Bud Norris.

To be fair, the Marlins are paying Heath Bell $4M to not pitch for them, and $8M of what's left went to Toronto in exchange for the trade salary dump Loria made. So they're paying $38M for on-field talent, $11.5M of which is goes to Nolasco and I wouldn't bet on him staying in Miami very long.

Also amusing: A comprehensive list of every Marlin signed through 2014, not counting club options: Jeff Mathis. That is all.

LucklessWonder:CipollinaFan: And there is the sweep.Off to Cincy to play a real team.

Yep.

Also Nats season wins over/under 89.5?

1. Henry Rodriguez does not have to close out games for the first few months of the season.2. Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen are not closing so they can be used in the bullpen when they are needed.3. We will not have to platoon Flores, Solano and Leon at catcher.4. Dan Haren might not be the Dan Haren of old but it is an upgrade over Edwin Jackson.5. Bryce Harper has more power than he did last year.6. Jason Werth does not have a broken wrist.7. Ryan Zimmerman is not having shoulder issues (yet).8. Denard Span will be leading off giving the nationals a guy with a good OBS that can actually steal bases.9. Strasberg can play the last month of the season.10. Despite Atlanta's additions the rest of the division got weaker over the offseason and Atlanta will be without Brandon Beachy for a few months and Chipper Jones for the season.

That being said

1. Injuries can still happen at any time.2. Tom Gorzelanny, Sean Burnett will be missed as both as lefties and clutch members of the bullpen.3. Michael Morse will also be missed although the Nationals were able to play without him for half the season last year and do fine.4. John Lannan will not be there to pick up the slack if one of the starters goes out.5. Danny Espinosa seems to be continuing his trend of leading the league in strikeouts.6. The Braves will have both Medlen and Beachy in their rotation for half the year.

I think that the good outweighs the bad and I don't like to factor injuries that have not happened yet into predictions.My viewpoint is obviously biased but I do think that the Nationals will be a better team and they will be playing against a weaker group of opponents than they were last year when they won 98 and I think that they easily go over 89.5.

chimp_ninja:steamingpile: This marlin team is probably the worst MLB team in the past 113 years so its still less than impressive, let's see how they do when the reworked bullpen has to pitch.

The reworked bullpen that has thrown 5 IP, given up 2 singles and 2 walks while striking out 6 and not allowing any runs?

The bullpen that was above-average for the NL last year, then kept everyone under age 30 and added Rafael Soriano? I mean, they "reworked" so much that they no longer have Brad Lidge or a 35-year-old Mike Gonzalez, so they'll have to figure out how to get by without that.

Steamingpile: Your Fark source for Steaming PilesTM. You did a nice job last spring of telling everyone how horrible the Nationals would be.

I never said shiat about them last spring because nobody expected much, I did say during the year their bullpen was pitching over their head which was true. Most had either a half run or more under their career era and whip, I may have given werth shiat by saying he's just after a paycheck but other than that most felt they would still be behind the phillies/braves. Most had them as a sleeper team to see how their young pitchers would react.

Fact remains their bullpen hasn't been pressed into service yet and its way too early in the baseball season to tell. Hell if I go by the first series the braves are going to go 120-42 yet still finish second to the marlins who will go 162-0. Its a long season and nobody knows, spring training is never a good gauge.